[CosmonautCowboy]

I've had the chance to play a little over the course of the day; here are some initial impressions and feedback. Hope it's helpful!

Generally, I think the UI could use some small tweaks. I only found out that solo mode was available due to a post here. It wasn't immediately obvious to me that I had to click on the matchmaking "button" in the top right hand corner to switch between the two.  Even matchmaking for multiplayer took me a moment to see it was working, since you click the match on the lower left-hand side, and after the initial message disappears, the only indication that it's still looking is the "scan" effect over the thumbnail, and over the matchmaking button on the top right-hand side.  When it comes to UI, I think "dumbing it down," in order to eliminate any possibility of confusion,  is a good design philosophy.

Gameplay is generally satisfying. I'm content with the speed the characters move, the controls are intuitive, and the maps provide a good arena for combat. The shooting seems spot on to me.

The cover system is excellent, I really compliment the team on that. I expected it would be clunky, but it's buttery smooth. Nicely done!

Based on what I'm seeing, the CQC system is basically rock/paper/scissors. That's plenty of depth for the game, but I think that an expanded tutorial or written explanation of it would be helpful.  I've been trying to effectively put the system to use, but my results haven't be consistent. How close to you have to be for the input to be effective? How precise is the timing needed for a parry or block?

As far as I've seen, the special moves aren't really gone into that much. The tutorial only covers one character, so that doesn't help with the others.

I was concerned about the asymmetric aspect of the game. While I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would, I'm still not sure about it. The match I played as the Antagonist, the team mopped the floor with me the whole game. I wasn't effective at all. In the final level I got lucky. They temporarily ran out of respawns, and after the bots killed two of them, I got the other two and won. They were completely superior the entire game, but I exploited an advantage and won.

On one hand, that's the whole point of an asymmetric multiplayer game. On the other, I wonder how long people are going to want to invest the time on the first part of the level (something like 15 or 20 minutes) if the final, deciding part, is going to be a complete wildcard.

Overall, I like the game so far. I like the design and the characters. With a few simple improvements to clarify the gameplay, I think it has the potential to appeal to a lot of people.

[CosmonautCowboy]

A few more thoughts and observations:

For whatever it's worth, I didn't  experience any lag while I was playing.

Matchmaking was inconsistent, sometimes a match was found relatively quickly, other times it took a few minutes. I never experienced anything like the 20+ minute wait times some people have mentioned.

You've got all these cool-looking characters and ships, so let us see them in the cut scenes! The camera bounces around way too much. That kind of editing was 'en vogue' a while back, but it's been done to death over media in general.  It's just annoying and distracting now.

As others have mentioned, there should be rewards for the Antagonist, as well. There needs to be incentive for lots of different people to play as Antagonists. If the only incentive is bragging rights on the leaderboard, I suspect you run the risk of only having a small group of very high level players being Antagonists. Not very fun for everyone else.

I noticed that after you play Solo, and come back out to the main menu, it defaults back to matchmaking mode. I get that you guys designed the game for multiplayer, but the mode shouldn't change automatically. Switching it back after every mission would be a small annoyance, but an annoyance none the less.

[Kid Dracula]

Thanks CosmonautCowboy!

[CosmonautCowboy]

May 20, 2017 BETA Weekend Feedback [PS4]

Reactions from completing "Hanging By A Thread" on Solo:

-It is not made clear that you have to melee kill an Aleph soldier (the ones with the gold glow) in order to be allowed to activate a reactor. The beginning of the mission only says "take their Aleph," which isn't specific. Clarity is key. If people know what they need to do to complete a mission, they'll keep trying at it. If they're not sure, many will simply quit out of frustration. It is critical that this is made clear at the beginning of the mission.

-The time between soldier respawns is way too long. I had to wait for several minutes in between each set. There is nothing to do but wait during that time, which is a big problem in a game. Since you can't advance in the mission without killing the soldiers, this is another critical element.

-I was able to complete the level with Konstantin, but I think characters with less firepower, or ones who can't hide, will have a much more difficult time taking on the Elite soldiers. I know I had a difficult time against them with Alicia last weekend. If it's simply a matter of skill (learning how to effectively counter their grapple and using your specials to your advantage) that's fine. However, that further highlights the need for a solid tutorial for gameplay.

[CosmonautCowboy]

-I haven't been able to get into any multiplayer games so far this weekend.

Reactions from playing "In Shock" on Solo:

Several of the locations that the tentacles plant themselves are out of range for Lycus' gun. Generally, it seems that there's only one in range at a time. This can be a problem, because a few of the locations can only be hit from one highly exposed position.  Given that his gun is underpowered at anything but point-blank range, it takes forever to kill the tentacle. Meanwhile, you're easily swarmed, flanked, and sniped.

I was able to complete that section with him, but it took a long time due to the constant crowd control, and avoiding getting zapped by the Beholder. There's a fine line between challenging and tedium, and I think the Solo missions are going to fall on the "tedium" side if they aren't well balanced.  That would be a shame, because there's so much to like about the game, even with what little we see now. I think lots of people who aren't necessarily interested in the multiplayer would still buy the game if they know they single player mode is good.

I haven't been able to beat Dr. Kuzmann in Solo mode. I'm not sure how short-range combat characters are supposed to deal with him.  He's aggressive and very powerful.

If you retreat, he's got his  'bomb attack,' and when you try to move out of the affected zone, if you're exposed to even one Bot, it can be enough to give you trouble.  Then, the button prompts randomly pop up, and you're supposed to hit 4 or 5 buttons on the machine, or Shea dies. Every time I've played, Kuzmann is right in front of the machine, so it's an impossible task to complete.

When I heard him say something about his gun being jammed, I figured that was a prompt to attack, but the second I was out of cover, he blasted me. I've also tried melee attacking him, but that just got me killed, too. It's one thing for the difficulty to be up there when you're playing with a full team. When you're on your own, and stuck with one character, it needs to be scaled to an sensible level for the character you're playing with. Or allow players to switch characters within the match, so they can take advantage of different abilities.

[CosmonautCowboy]

I found the first part of "In Shock" was generally a little easier with Alicia, as her gun has better range and power than Lycus'.

However, I still ran into the same problem of having to take out a tentacle that could only be hit by standing in an exposed area. Even the nearest cover to hide from the Beholder leaves your back exposed to Bots, all of whom come running, since they can always see Alicia. The position in question is also right in front of where the dropship deploys the Bots, who will rip you to shreds in seconds if you don't move before they hit the ground.

Once you get all the tentacles, then you've got to stay close enough to the mobile Beholder to actually do damage to it with your short range weapons, all while not getting blasted by it, and dealing with all the Bots. It's not impossible by any means, but after a while it's just a grind.

All in all, I'm still enjoying exploring the game an it's various characters and how they play. Thanks for the Beta key, and I'm happy to keep playing and giving feedback for as long as you need it!

[Kid Dracula]

Great feedback. Thanks so much!

[Fluffy]

I found myself having the same issue with the mission "In Shock", i played it in Coop, and due to Lycus' short range, i totally ignored the Beholder and kept myself busy with keeping enemies away from the other players with a better range.

[CosmonautCowboy]

I found myself having the same issue with the mission "In Shock", i played it in Coop, and due to Lycus' short range, i totally ignored the Beholder and kept myself busy with keeping enemies away from the other players with a better range.

Which is perfect for when you're plaing as a team. I don't think the multiplayer aspect needs to be changed in this regard. The characters all play diifferently, and that naturally promotes teamwork and the division of "work" amongst the players. Really good design, I think. Solo mode just needs to be tweaked a little to account for you being alone.

[MSE_Meta]

I found myself having the same issue with the mission "In Shock", i played it in Coop, and due to Lycus' short range, i totally ignored the Beholder and kept myself busy with keeping enemies away from the other players with a better range.

Which is perfect for when you're plaing as a team. I don't think the multiplayer aspect needs to be changed in this regard. The characters all play diifferently, and that naturally promotes teamwork and the division of "work" amongst the players. Really good design, I think. Solo mode just needs to be tweaked a little to account for you being alone.

Yeah, I use to turn my shield on with Lycus, run through the arena killing the AI or guarding the backs of the teammates who are shooting tentacles (specially those which leave their backs off-guard).

[CosmonautCowboy]

It will be a lot of fun to play this in a good party, where you can communicate . Pairing off characters with mutually beneficial skills, or having one or two of the ranged characters covering for the others. I'm excited to see what players can come up with, and how many Antagonists will be able to stand up to really good teams.

[CosmonautCowboy]

May 27, 2017 BETA Weekend Feedback

Hello, here are my thoughts following this weekend's playing.

If it's possible to speed up matchmaking for the BETA, or have the servers open longer (for example 3pm Friday to 9pm Sunday), it would help in giving good feedback. I set aside as much time as I can to play, but I burn through it quickly waiting 15-30 minutes to get into a match.

If the bulk of the game is replaying levels like ones we have in the beta, the in-game banter is going to get old. I think especially of Dr Kuzmann, who repeats his taunts quite often. It's OK for the first few times, but after you play the level 20 times, you're probably going to be sick and tired of hearing it.

In "Hanging By A Thread," one of my teammates fell off the map and died when a melee animation (he was attacking an enemy) carried them over the edge. Just as players are invulnerable to fire while in melee, I don't think they should be carried off the map. Maybe not an easy fix, and not a huge priority in the grand scheme of things, but still.

Unless I'm mistaken, you can' t activate your special while heavily damaged. I'm not sure that's fair, as it could give you the advantage to escape.

Speaking of fairness, I'm having a hard time deciding what "fair" or balanced is in this game. I'm wondering if it's even possible to balance. Often times it just seems like chaos. Thus far, my observation is that  the average match hinges on a few critical moments,  rather than a maintained constant of skill or tactical superiority. That can be very exciting, but very frustrating if you've spent 20 minutes on a match only to be swiftly and suddenly destroyed.

It appears that if you don't select a reward on the reward screen, you get nothing. That should be changed.

A couple of matches I played didn't have an antagonist. To balance this, the game seems to throws a higher number of soldiers at you. On a small map like the crane section of "Hanging By A Thread," we were quickly overwhelmed. Another time, on the reactor section of that mission, the rest of my team was killed, and all the soldiers on the map swarmed me in the spawn corridor and quickly finished me off. I'd like to have a chance to play under those conditions again to try different things out, but my immediate impression was that it was an unreasonable amount of opponents.

Another person mentioned spawn points. This is sort of a "worst of both worlds" scenario, as both parties can feel they have the disadvantage. The Antagonist can apparently be spawn camped, but they can also take their time selecting a respawn point and easily ambush anyone that's in that area.

[dapo36]

Solo Missions are impossible to beat. Tone down the difficulty and give more lives.

[CosmonautCowboy]

Unfortunately my criticisms of the game are mounting the more I play it. In spite of a strong like for the look of the world and the characters, the game just isn't that fun to play over time.  Maybe it's the fact that we're playing the same maps on the beta.

Games without antagonists are so swarmed with AI enemies that it's virtually impossible to beat. Single player isn't really a proper single player mode, just the multiplayer experience scaled down, and most of the time impossible to beat. Balance on antagonist matches is completely arbitrary. You never know what you're going to get, and not in a fun way.

I want to love the game. I really do. But you guys seem to be insisting on hinging an entire game on a gimmick. One that has been tried before and failed to gain a foothold, I might add.

On one of the dev videos, the director mentions that it's "not about different game modes." What's so terrible about having your typical deathmatch or capture-the-flag options? If they aren't an unreasonable financial burden to implement, it only adds value to your game overall. 

After getting into this beta, I finally picked up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It's fantastic, and you guys are obviously a studio of talented people.  The truth is, I will buy Raiders when it comes out, even if only out of gratitude for being part of the beta.  How much I end up actually playing it, though, I can't say.   

Future tweaks and additions may make the game appeal to me more, but as it is, I just don't enjoy it enough to justify spending too much of my increasingly limited gaming time on it.